LIVE: Paul Shevlin & Support – Pavilion, Belfast

Tonight was a relatively low key gig for Paul Shevlin at The Pavilion Belfast to showcase upcoming new material from the Belfast based singer songwriter.

First support act of the night was 17 year old Callum Stewart from Magherafelt. Releasing his first material in 2014 he is a talented solo singer / guitarist and pianist. Playing some new material including his latest single Gold Callum was well received by the growing crowd on the night and is sure to be a name we hear of in the future.

The Late Two’s, Belfast’s Indie / Pop five piece band took to the stage in a blaze of energy, noise and obviously five guys loving what they are doing. They were fully supported by a group of twenty something followers singing along to every song and throwing all manner of shapes on the dancefloor. They definitely have the ability to write catchy indie / pop tunes with “Sierra Leone” being my favourite song on the night.

They obviously draw influences from far and wide as I sensed influences of The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys and even Green Day throughout the tight energetic set and no doubt they will find their ultimate direction in time. Definitely a band I’d recommend checking out again.

Next up was the headline act of the night.

I first heard the music of Paul Shevlin back in 2011 when he released the track “Lift Up Your Head”. The track was one of those that stuck in your head and you couldn’t do anything but sing it for days on end. Since then he has won the “Next Brit Thing” in 2012 and whilst many an artist would dine out on this fact for an entire career Paul Shevlin has moved on and continues to pen great alternative pop songs drawing on his obvious influences of Ben Folds and Foy Vance to name but two.

The Pavilion gig was a showcase of up and coming new material. Paul Shevlin himself has grown from a solo artist to part of a tight 4 piece band giving a much filled out sound whilst retaining all the inventiveness of his original solo work.

Speaking to Paul after the show he called the 7 song set list a “work in progress” and between the gig and the recording of the songs in Wales this week the songs and arrangements may still change and who knows be unrecognisable come the final release. Whilst Paul had brought in a new drummer some two weeks before the show you wouldn’t have noticed as the band played a great set to a big crowd in this excellent venue.

Stand out songs on the night for me were “Who We Are”, “I Surrender” and “Take Me Home” which all on a first listen just struck the right note with my own personal musical tastes and judging by the reception they received, also many of the gathered audience.

“Work in Progress” does the songs played no justice as they in reality sounded very much like the finished article.

With the release of these new songs I think that it is most likely we will be hearing a lot more from Paul Shevlin in the future. Michael Ferguson, GiggingNI.com